Technology

An engineered strain of yeast can consume acetic acid, a byproduct of cellulosic biofuels production and increase ethanol yield by about 10 percent. The yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is good at fermenting the simple sugars found in plant matter to produce ethanol. However, before the yeast can ferment these sugars, they must first be extracted from the plant’s lignocellulose – the tough, fibrous material that...

Using sunlight and wastewater, a new device developed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, can provide a sustainable source of hydrogen gas. The research team led by Yat Li, associate professor of Chemistry, developed a hybrid solar-microbial device that can not only produce hydrogen gas but can also improve the efficiency of wastewater treatment. Their hybrid device combines a micro...

Investments in renewable energy technologies are booming with the number of patents issued for such technologies rising sharply over the last decade. These are the findings of a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Santa Fe Institute that created a database of energy-related patents issued in more than 100 countries between 1970 and 2009. According to Jessika Trancik, an assist...

The average U.S. residential utility customer consumed 940 kilowatt-hours per month in 2011, equivalent to 11,280 kWh a year, according to the U.S. Energy Administration. Average annual consumption ranged from 6,252 kWh in Maine to 16,176 kWh in Louisiana. This translated into monthly bills ranging from $80.09 in Maine to $142.41 in Alabama and $202.72 in Hawaii, for a national average of $110.14 a month...

Tapping or rubbing a paper-like material developed by Disney Research can generate enough energy to light a string of light emitting diodes or an e-paper display. Researchers at Disney Research in Pittsburg and the Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated simple flexible generators made of paper-thin sheets of plastic and other everyday material that harvest kinetic energy. The design of the Paper Gene...

A unique wind power generator is getting support from an international crowd funding body. The ring-type wind power generator, which was developed by Tokio Fukui, can generate five times as much power compared to a wind turbine with the same bore diameter. The wind power generator is lightweight and has no shafts or any exterior parts, and only needs a 2-square-meter area to be installed in – it is...

Water droplets are taking a “jump” towards becoming the newest source of energy. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that, under certain circumstances, tiny water droplets can carry an electric charge. They believe that this finding could lead to more efficient power plants as well as a new way of creating power. According to M.I.T. postdoc Nenad Miljkovic, under certain...

A new synthetic metabolic pathway developed by chemical engineering researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, can break down sugars quickly and efficiently. The researchers believe that the rate in which this new pathway allows for the breakdown of glucose could lead to a 50 percent increase in the production of biofuels. The new pathway is intended to replace the natural metabolic...

Researchers from the University of Adelaide have developed a process of turning waste non-biodegradable plastic bags into high-tech nanomaterial. The process that the researchers have developed makes use of non-biodegradable plastic grocery bags to create “carbon nanotube membranes,” which are highly sophisticated and expensive materials with a variety of potential advanced applications includ...

Cement made from waste ash from sugar production is not only stronger than ordinary cement, it is also a greener building material. Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have found that cement made with an amount of sugar cane ash mixed in are stronger, can withstand higher pressure and crumble less than ordinary cement.In countries where sugar cane...

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